


Staying Human

by MistoElectra



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Banshee deserved so much more, Gen, JUST LET ME CRY OKAY, but angst is universal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:38:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7322830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistoElectra/pseuds/MistoElectra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Sean Cassidy, it cost too much, staying human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Staying Human

**_It cost too much, staying human._ **

Human: adjective, relating to or characteristic of humankind.

At least, that was the definition, and by that definition, and scientifically, none of them were human in the modern sense. They weren’t homo superior, they were different, and they were mutant, no matter how hard they had tried otherwise.

Hank had always tried his best to fit in, and even if his intellect separated him from his peers, most knew nothing of the other way in which he differed. He could deal with that, was perfectly fine with keeping it a secret. What they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them, right? As far as they were concerned, he was perfectly human, smarter than average but nonetheless, still human. And he wanted to stay that way, even wanted to go further if he could, to not have to hide the feet that branded him different.

But we all know how that worked out.

In Sean’s mind, he wasn’t so different. In fact, he’d never really classified himself as anything more than human until Charles and Erik had first spoken to him in the aquarium. To him, it was just something he could do, and through growing up in a large house with fairly little monitoring, he’d never really had to hide. If he’d broken a window, he’d admit to it, and a head would simply be shaken and it would be sorted. No, to him, being human wasn’t so much of a scientific thing but rather a way of being. Not a difficult way of being but just...well, being good.

Perhaps it was why, in his mind, after Cuba, Erik was so suddenly painted in a different shade, separate from the rest of them and now clumped with the others on the beach, Azazel, Riptide, even Angel. In doing what they had done, to him, they had lost their humanity.

He’d been told before that he was too good willed, almost naive but he had never seen that as a problem.

When the school started up, he helped go and find new students, and bring them into the mansion.

He helped out whatever way he could.

When some of the older teachers were drafted, he stepped in where he could.

When Alex was drafted, he spent an hour in his room alone, before emerging and taking on even more, despite the fact that most of the staff were gone, the older students too and the younger ones were being withdrawn. It was him, Hank and Charles now, although it might as well have just been him and Hank.

And when what seemed like a genuine, good natured wish to understand more about mutants came to the mansion, the idea of running a few simple tests to help out, to help doctors be able to treat them and people to understand and not be afraid- Sean was too good to say no.

He always wanted to help.

Hank had warned him. There was something off about it all, something wrong, but the red head...well, he had never quite grown out of being an innocent child, even after Cuba. He’d laughed, told Hank he worried too much and disappeared off with a sunny smile.

Hank liked to remember him that way.

Sean had never come back. There were no letters, no phone calls like promised and they would find out later that there never would be. No letters, no phone calls, no body to bury. Just ash, scattered to the wind, and a small headstone in the corner of the garden, plain and unassuming, where Hank would sometimes sit, talking to a friend who wasn’t there.

**Sean Cassidy**

**1944-1964**

**‘To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.’**

For Sean Cassidy, it cost too much, staying human.


End file.
